


CHICKENS

by thewolvesrunwild



Series: Lovely Little Fix-its [3]
Category: Lovely Little Losers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 09:19:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5534474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewolvesrunwild/pseuds/thewolvesrunwild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Peter's phone didn't ring?</p>
            </blockquote>





	CHICKENS

**Author's Note:**

  * For [asiaemilia9](https://archiveofourown.org/users/asiaemilia9/gifts).



> I got this prompt from asiaemilia9 and really liked it so I pushed myself to finish it in time for Christmas. Not sure if they celebrate it but who doesn't like gifts, right? Hope you enjoy :)

To say Peter was freaking out would be an understatement. The moment he was paired off with Balthazar, he was internally screaming.  
Peter kept up a calm façade as he and Balthazar took their seats behind the camera and Ben and Freddie went in front of it.

Balthazar was shaking from silent laughter as Ben and Freddie “flirted” with each other.

“Benedick has started to sing Taylor Swift,” Peter said, nudging Balthazar’s shoulder. “We know what that means.”

“He’s scared shitless,” Balthazar said with a laugh.

“Okay, Jonesie,” Balth laughed again at the nickname “we’ve reached the ‘will they’ or ‘won't they’ part of the game.” Peter brought his hand up to his face as if adjusting a headset microphone.

“You can really start to see the fear in their eyes,” Balthazar said next, bringing a hand to his ear to adjust his own invisible headset.

“Yeah.”

“You’re up next, Donaldson,” Freddie said as she glanced over at them.

Peter was far too focused on _not_ looking at Balthazar see the other boy’s lingering glance.

“Oh, here we see the classically overused mouth tentacle tactic, where the one person threatens to make the situation worse for the other person if them come any nearer. I’d regard this as a defensive tactic.”

“Donaldson, I couldn’t have put it better myself,” Balthazar said, nudging their shoulders together again.

Peter could feel his chest tighten. Balthazar hadn’t called him “Donaldson” since Year Twelve.

It took Peter a moment to come up with something to say next.

“Fun fact about the tongue, Jonesie,” he said with a glance to Balth. “It’s over two feet long, it has over four-thousand nerve endings.”

Everyone was snickering at that and Balthazar shut his eyes and rested his forehead on Peter’s shoulder.

“Kingston is really tackling some ground-breaking territory here today, folks,” Peter continued, his smile growing wider by the minute.

“Such agility,” Balth said, moving his head back up. “It’s a real treat to see such feats of poise and sportsmanship here in the arena today.”

“ _Poise_ is the exact word I’d use,” Peter said, looking at Balthazar.

“One of life rare glees.”

“Okay, now,” Peter put his hand on Balth’s shoulder, not wanting the contact between them to end. “I want to draw the audiences’ attention to-”

But suddenly Fred was falling forward and Ben was leaning back and Balthazar was throwing his hands up at Freddie’s victory.

As Balthazar clapped and Freddie gloated, the situation hit Peter in full. He was going to have to stare at Balthazar’s face and attempt kiss him. Balthazar was going to attempt to kiss _him._

Peter remembered the other day when Balth had run lines with him and the way their hands lingered, entwined together for what had felt like ages after the bow.

It wasn’t that Peter didn’t want to kiss Balthazar – and god did he want to – but his whole plan had centered on getting Balth to hate him and move on. Peter was a shitty person, and Balthazar didn’t need that in his life.

But the last few weeks with The Rules had brought everyone so much closer. Balthazar had been the one to really push the flat bonding. Also, though process of elimination, Balthazar had been the one to suggest this game.

The Rules may be the cause of the situation, but they were also one of the reasons that Peter couldn’t go through with it.

He sent off three frantic texts to Costa.

 **sos**  
Costa  
I need you to call me in exactly five minutes

Peter waited nervously but no reply came.

"Peter, you ready?" Ben asked. Peter looked up and saw that Balthazar was already sitting on the floor in front of the camera.

"Yeah, one sec," Peter said. "Costa's-" He gestured to his phone as way of explanation. After Ben turned away Peter sent one last text in a desperate bid for freedom.

**It's about Faustus**

Typically, any mention of the play was enough to summon Costa like the devil himself.  
"Alright, I'm ready," he said, sitting down across from Balth.

“Wait, both of you lean back,” Ben said as he fiddled with the camera.

“What?”

“Then the two of you will lean forward when I start filming for dramatic effect,” Ben explained.

“Alright.”

Ben hit the recording button and Peter and Balthazar dutifully slid forward dramatically into the shot.

“And now, Freddie,” Ben began in a soft voice, “we get to sit back and relax as our two handsome flatmates mack on each other.”

 _That’s really not helping_ , Peter thought, shaking his head. “Don’t be a dick,” he said out loud, deliberately not looking at Balthazar.

“Literally the millionth time I’ve heard that,” Ben responded. “Go!” he prompted with a wave of his arms when Peter and Balthazar still weren’t looking at each other.

“Oh, Balthy Balth, you don’t stand a chance.” _Balthy Balth? What’s wrong with me?_ There was no way Peter was looking up any time soon now.

Balthazar licked his lips. “You’re all talk and no action,” Balthazar told him, thinking of all the chances the two had had to get together that never come to be.

“I’ll give you action,” Peter responded, finally looking up at him. Balthazar took his chance to look into the camera and wiggle his eyebrows suggestively. Ben started laughing so much that the game was paused until he could compose himself.

“Can’t wait for the internet you hear that,” Peter teased.

“I’ll cut that out later. Keep going, you two,” he said stifling the last of his giggles.

Peter and Balthazar went back to simply stating at each other.

“This early in the game I can't tell if there’s a stronger player,” Freddie said.

Balthazar swayed forward slightly as Freddie continued to narrate.

“I hope you’ve got both eyes on this you’ll miss the kiss of the century,” she said.

“I really won’t, Freds,” Ben lamented, falling backwards onto his back and putting his hands over his eyes.

“Can you stop hyping this up? It’s literally just kissing,” Peter said nervously.  He was getting worried that Costa hadn’t received his text. _Hasn’t it been five minutes already?_

“No comments from the participants to the commentators please,” Freddie scolded.

“Wha-”

Balthazar was smiling until Ben suddenly sat up.

“Just kiss Balthazar!” he all but shouted at them.

“I bet you Peter pulls out first,” Fred said to him.

“You’ll vacuum my room?”

“I think you’ll find you’ll be washing my windows.”

“Done deal.”

Peter wished he could tune out what they were saying, but it was either listen to them, or actually kiss Balthazar.

“This really is a remarkably slow start,” Ben said.”But What a match. Such concentration, just look at that eye contact from Donaldson. I think he’s using what I call the ‘don’t blink’ technique to put off the other player.”

Balth’s smile at Ben’s Doctor Who reference was really making it hard to not lean forward and close the gap between them. His chest was tight and he dug his fingers into his knees. Balthazar smiled and nodded along with Freddie’s commentary and Peter felt the need to move intensify. Ben started talking again but Peter had all his concentration on not letting his discomfort show.

_Just kiss him! What’s the worst that could happen? It’s all just a game anyway! But what if it doesn’t work out? I can’t not have Balth as a friend. I can’t go out with him. I’ll just fuck it all up. I’m only good for fucking things up._

“Aptly put,” Ben said as Peter pulled out of his headspace enough to focus on what his friends were saying. Before Peter could focus, Balthazar preformed the Death Swoop. Peter couldn’t even move the moment he watched Balth’s eyes move down to his lips. He just sat there like a deer in the headlights.

Balthazar’s lips were soft against his own and Peter moved his arm to hold the back of Balth’s neck. The other boy’s hand moved to Peter knee and he was leaning forward, moving his lips slowly. Peter remembered their audience only after Balthazar finally pulled away.

“Ha! Freds you have to vacuum my room!” Ben shouted happily.

“That’s not fair! Neither of them pulled away!” Fred argued back.

“Nuh uh. Balthy pulled away from the kiss first, that means you lose the bet!”

“Glad to have such a great audience,” Peter said to Balthazar, his hand still on his neck.

“Well, our first kiss _was_ just recorded,” he responded, nodding at the camera without leaving Pete’s eyes. “So I’m sure they won't be the only ones.”

“It’s nice to have for prosperity’s sake,” Peter shrugged, smiling.

“So do you two want to get a room or should we?” Ben asked, the smile on his face even brighter than Peter’s. The other boys brought their hands back to themselves.

“Ben it’s not like they’re going to keep kissing,” Fred said.

“Well not with us staring at them. They’re not Meg.”

“Yeah, but the rules-“

“I only added the ‘no shenanigans’ rule to get Peter to admit his feelings for Balthazar!” Ben admitted.

“They just kissed! Peter hasn’t said anything!”

“Well, Peter?” Ben prompted him.

Peter glanced between Ben and Balth. The latter was messing with his shirt sleeves, a habit that appeared when he was nervous.

“Balth,” Peter said, placing his hand over Balthazar’s. “I really like you.”

Balthazar looked up at him, smiling.

“I kinda like you too.”

“Kinda?”

“Kinda a lot, yeah.”

Peter couldn’t resist. He leaned in for another kiss.

This time however, he was stopped short by his phone blasting Costa’s ringtone.

“Shit, it’s Costa,” he announced. “I gotta take this.” He sent what he hoped was a sincerely apologetic look at Balthazar, before getting up and heading to his room.

“We can’t just scrap the rules, Ben,” Freddie said.

“Not _all_ the rules, Freds, just that rule. I mean, I’ve got a girlfriend, and Balth and Peter will probably be official by the end of the day, so unless you have another reason aside from Peter being emotionally constipated, I think we should scrap Rule Number Five.” Ben looked at Balthazar. “Don’t you think so too, Balthy?”

Balthazar took his eyes away from Peter’s door to look at Ben.

“Uh, yeah, getting rid of that rule would be nice. I’d rather not be punished again,” Balthazar said.

“Then I, Freddie Kingtson, ruler of this flat, declare Rule Number Five to be null and void.”

Benedick and Balthazar cheered and the three of them all clapped.

“Uh, what did I miss?” Peter asked as he came out of his room, sliding his phone into his pocket.

“We’re throwing out the ‘no shenanigans’ rule,” Freddie told him. “But all the rest still apply! No being out after curfew and no going over budget!”

“Sweet,” Peter said, sitting down next to Balth and taking his hand.

“Alright, now that we’ve established that, it’s time for the final round,” Ben said, using his announcer voice. “Balth, since you pulled away from the kiss, it counts as your loss, so it’s Freds and Pete in the finals.”

Balthazar scooted over to the side of the camera and Peter took his spot, Freddie moving to sit in front of him.

“It’s Hobbes and Jonesie back in the commentator box for the final round,” Ben said as both Freddie and Peter over exaggerated cracking their necks.

“This really could be anyone’s game,” Balthazar said.

“I think you’ll find that though Freddie has the brawn and brunt, Peter shows a strong streak for getting lucky.”

“Wow, Ben, wow,” Peter responded not looking away from Freddie.

“Let’s see if Peter’s luck can last,” Ben said in response. “Action!”

The two shifted a little but didn’t do much until Peter smirked. Freddie took that as a sign to make her move and she leaned forward. Peter simply turned to his left and planted a quick peck on Balthazar’s lips.

“Looks like you win Freddie,” Peter said to her.

“Yay!”

“Sort of a win-lose since you have to vacuum my room,” Ben said.

“Just let me enjoy my moment, Ben!”

“Once you let me enjoy clean floors!”

Peter and Balth shared a look before getting up and heading to Peter’s room.

“Was this you’re whole evil plan?” Peter asked once the door was shut.

“Well, I wouldn’t call it evil. It’s not like it was a guarantee we would have been paired up.”

“You sure about that?”

“Well, I may have been hoping that Ben was invested in our relationship enough to help out,” Balthazar admitted.

“I think we should stop talking about Ben,” Peter said, his hand finding Balth’s neck again.

“I’m fine with that,” he responded, pulling Peter in by the waist.


End file.
